After a bout of magic practice, Twilight is busy modestly shrugging off praise from Spike, who is impressed by the variety of magical spells she can accomplish. Suddenly, they learn from two excitable unicorn colts, Snips and Snails, that "The Great and Powerful" Trixie is in Ponyville to perform her magic show. Twilight and her friends go see the show, but some of the others quickly grow tired of Trixie's boasting that she's the greatest magician in all Equestria and her tall tales about her defeat of a bear-like monster called the Ursa Major, and Rainbow Dash starts heckling her.

Trixie: Well, well, well, it seems we have some neeeigh-sayers in the audience!

Trixie retaliates by challenging Applejack, Rainbow Dash, and Rarity to test her claim that "anything you can do, I can do better!", then proceeds to turn their challenges against them and humiliate them one by one. Despite urging from Spike, Twilight Sparkle refuses to do anything because she's afraid of being mistaken for a show-off herself.

Snips and Snails are impressed by the act, but Spike tries to convince them not to take Trixie's stories at face value:

The two unicorn lads sneak into the Everfree Forest with the intent of luring an Ursa Major to Ponyville so they can watch Trixie take one on. This proves to be a bad idea: the giant bear monster goes on a rampage, Trixie nearly panics at the sight of the beast, and when she does try to defeat it, she barely annoys it. With Ponyville at risk, Twilight finally decides to make with the magic and... lulls the Ursa to sleep by rocking it and feeding it with an improvised bottle of milk, made by telekinetically ripping open a water tower, milking a barnful of cattle, and affixing a makeshift nipple to the end. After returning the Ursa from whence it came, her friends ask how she was able to defeat a creature considered to be invincible, where Twilight reveals the titanic Ursa "Major" was only a baby Ursa Minor.

Trixie runs off while Twilight and company deliver the Aesop: taking pride in your abilities and using them when they're needed isn't showing off. Twilight also tasks Snips and Snails with helping out the town, but is generous enough to give them (and Spike) fashionable mustaches as well.

Tropes:

Animalistic Abomination: Used as a punchline. Keep in mind that the following conversation concerns a creature so powerful, it nearly destroyed Ponyville because it was in a bad mood. Might Equestria be a more terrifying world than meets the eye?

Twilight Sparkle: That wasn't an Ursa Major. That was a baby, an Ursa Minor. Trixie: THAT was just a BABY!? Twilight Sparkle: And it wasn't rampaging. It was just cranky because someone [gives a look at Snips and Snails] woke it up. Spike: Well, if that was an Ursa Minor, then what's an Ursa Major like? [cut to a monster large enough to cradle the Ursa Minor in its arms and rock it back and forth]Twilight Sparkle:You don't want to know.

Anything You Can Do, I Can Do Better: Trixie claims to be able to do this, but she just interfered with Applejack, Rainbow Dash and Rarity's tricks to humiliate them. Oddly, it's only in the latter two cases that the tricks could be taken as being impressive, given that every unicorn we've seen using magic has telekinesis.

Trixie: When Trixie is through, the only thing they'll call you [Rainbow Dash] is "loser".

Brick Joke: Spell number 25 grows a moustache on whomever it is used on, at first demonstrated with Spike (to his pleasure). At the end of the episode, Twilight uses it on Spike again, as well as Snips and Snails, which all three say is cool.

Constellations: The episode involved a giant bear made of stars incorrectly called an Ursa Major (it's actually an Ursa Minor as Twilight Sparkle pointed out in the end). There is an actual Ursa Major though, but it is a little more monstrous than its Ursa Minor cub.

Curb-Stomp Battle: Applejack, Rainbow Dash and Rarity each challenge Trixie who easily wins over the three of them.

Dub-Induced Plot Hole: The Japanese dub accidentally has Snips outright state in front of Spike that he plans to bring an Ursa Major to Ponyville, but he doesn't do anything to try and talk them out of it, which is probably what he would have done if he heard it in the original version.

Early Installment Weirdness: The episode handles unicorn magic a bit differently than the show would settle into, going on the premise that unicorns are born with a concrete set of magic abilities rather than it being something that can be learned.

The Exit Is That Way: Slamming the door just created in the middle of the room isn't an effective way to make an exit.

Fake Ultimate Heroine: Trixie presents herself as a powerful unicorn who saved another city from an Ursa Major and has the personality to go with it. The first thing she does when a real Ursa shows up is to scream and run away, then when she tries to stop it, all she does is annoy it more, causing her to reveal her story was a lie to make her look tougher than she really was.

Felony Misdemeanor: The episode itself towards Trixie. She hypes up her show by bragging, is shamed for it, then has her home destroyed and her reputation (vital for her line of work) destroyed. This is played as a Laser-Guided Karma.

Humble Pie: What Trixie doles out to those who challenge her claims, by taking whatever task they challenged her with and twisting it to her own ends. And at the end of the episode, she stoutly refuses to accept the slice that's served up to her, running away instead.

Hypocrite: Rainbow Dash is the last pony who should be complaining about anyone being a loudmouth or a showoff, see Hypocrisy Nod.

Hypocrisy Nod: Rainbow Dash, being as much of a braggart as Trixie, isn't in much of a position to lecture her, though even she knows that.

Miles Gloriosus: Played with. Trixie claimed to be powerful enough as to defeat a powerful monster called an Ursa Major, and when Applejack, Rainbow Dash and Rarity challenged her to a skills duel, she defeated them by interfering with their own tricks rather than by displaying superior skill. May come with a side of Small Name, Big Ego, since when Snips and Snails lead an Ursa into Ponyville, Trixie attempts to fight it; only after failing does she admit that all of her amazing tales were just lies to make her look more important.

Music Soothes the Savage Beast: Twilight's first move against the Ursa Minor is to create a wind that produces music by blowing through cattails, seriously mellowing out the monster.

No-Sell: The entire Trixie vs. Ursa Minor "bout", if it can even be called that.

Non-Indicative Name: The Ursa Minor may be the baby of the species, but it's still the size of an elephant.

Offscreen Teleportation: While Rarity challenges Trixie, Spike stands by himself in one shot. In the next cut, he's standing in front of Twilight, Applejack and Rainbow Dash.

Protagonist-Centered Morality: While Trixie's behavior was excessive, much of the conflict in the episode between Trixie and the Mane Cast could have been avoided if the Mane Cast decided it was just a stupid show and walked away, instead of creating a scene and calling attention to themselves.

You Gotta Have Blue Hair: Rarity is horrified that her mane (normally purple) has been turned green. But of course there is already one pony in the audience who has green hair and is offended by this. Ironically, the otherwise identical character (named Carrot Top) usually has orange hair and only ever appears with a green mane in this scene. Even in this episode, the orange-maned version is seen later. (Maybe she dyed it after the comment earlier?)

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